Novartis, Amgen join Atlas Venture fund

Biopharmaceutical companies Novartis AG and Amgen Inc. have signed on as limited partners in a new $265 million venture capital fund raised by Cambridge firm Atlas Venture. The new fund, called Atlas Venture Fund IX, will invest in biomedical and life sciences start-ups.

Separately, the Swiss-based Novartis, which runs its global research operations from Cambridge, and California-based Amgen, which also has a research center in Cambridge, have entered into corporate strategic partnerships with Atlas Venture, the partners said.

The alliances will “provide Amgen and Novartis with strategic proximity to Atlas Venture’s start-up formation activities around innovative, potentially high impact medicines,” the venture firm said in a statement.